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“We are in some intermediate state”: Alla Kubushko, Viktoria and Olga Protsenko (from left to right).
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(c) Christopher Zotter
More displaced Ukrainians have arrived in Poland than anywhere else in the world. The population has opened its arms, the government is showing an unknown face. Visit a country where war is very close.
Even if a world collapses, the horror of war settles over a European country and a darkness spreads in people’s heads, the sun doesn’t stop shining overnight. It’s one of the first hottest spring days in late March, some men in shorts strapped to their skates in front of the National Stadium in Warsaw, and teenagers are kicking a soccer ball on the asphalt. To the side, three women squint at the gates in front of the massive concrete building.
“We’re in some weird in-between state,” says Olga. “We were once happy, free people,” says Viktoria. “I want to go back to Kiev,” says Alla.